World champion Eddie Kantar has produced a book entitled “Bridge Humor.” The book is a collection of articles previously written during Kantar’s playing and writing career and contains plenty of what the title implies :bridge humor.
In today’s excerpt, Kantar describes a situation that took place in one of his bridge classes.
Kantar relates:
“We don’t waste time on the bidding in my classes. The play’s the thing, you know. Do you see how to make six spades with a diamond lead? If you do, don’t come t0 my classes. You’re too smart.
”The trick, of course, is to use dummy’s clubs without crawling under the table. To do this, win the diamond, cash two trump and then exit with the trump deuce. West wins and must play a club or a heart, and there you are in dummy.
I have a firm rule never to watch my students play (It makes them nervous). I broke my rule on this hand, and this is
what I saw:
“At the first table, declarer ducked the diamond opening altogether. East then shift to a heart but declarer still had to lose a heart. Down one.”
“At the second table, declarer cleverly won the diamond opening lead then sneakily lead a low spade ay trick two. West courageously went up with the 9 and returned a heart. Declarer now made the hand thinking she was a genius”
“At the third table, declarer won the diamond lead and immediately played the Ace of clubs from dummy and discarded a diamond. (Clearly the best play, if the defenders let you get away with it). Everyone followed. So she played the king of clubs and discarded her losing heart to make seven.
What’s the problem? she asked.
I decided to stop watching.”